Texas, Missouri Join Other States Looking To Block Gun Bans

On the same day President Obama called for a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines, a Texas legislator filed a bill asserting, “Not in my state!”

On Wednesday, the Lone Star State joined five other states already considering legislation that would block enforcement federal firearms acts in violation of the Second Amendment.

Texas Rep. John Otto (R-Dayton) announced the filing of HB553 on Wednesday morning. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for any state or federal official to “enforce or attempt to enforce any acts, laws, executive orders, agency orders, rules or regulations of any kind whatsoever of the United States government relating to confiscating any firearm, banning any firearm, limiting the size of a magazine for any firearm, imposing any limit on the ammunition that may be purchased for any firearm, taxing any firearm or ammunition therefore, or requiring the registration of any firearm or ammunition therefore.”

“The Second Amendment won’t enforce itself,” Tenth Amendment Center communications director Mike Maharrey said. “The Bill of Rights is nothing but a piece of parchment without some power behind it stepping in and holding the federal government in check. James Madison said when the feds pass an unwarrantable measure, the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand. He was referring to the state governments. Texas has the opportunity to do just what the founders intended, interpose and resist an out of control federal government and protect the most basic rights of its citizens.”

Texas doesn’t stand alone in the fight. On Tuesday, Missouri Rep. Casey Guernsey (R-Bethany) introduced HB170, a similar bill that would block enforcement of a wide range of unconstitutional federal restrictions on firearms. The bill affirms the state’s authority to regulate firearms made and owned exclusively within Missouri, and makes it a felony for any federal agent to attempt to enforce a federal regulation on such weapons. The bill then goes a step further

Any federal law, rule, regulation, or order created or effective on or after January 1, 2013 shall be unenforceable in the state of Missouri if the law, rule, regulation, or order attempts to:

(1) Ban or restrict ownership of a semi-automatic firearm or any magazine of a firearm; or

(2) Require any firearm, magazine, or other firearm accessory to be registered in any manner.
Maharrey called proactive steps by state legislatures crucial.

“The president made it clear that he will push Congress hard to ban certain weapons, a clear violation of the spirit of the Second Amendment, which forbids any abridgement of the right to keep and bear arms. Banning clearly abridges. Look the word up; it’s pretty clear,” he said. “Like every American, I am horrified at the evil perpetrated by the killer at Sandy Hook elementary. But we cannot use one act of evil as an excuse to perpetrate another. And make no mistake; allowing the federal government to strip away our fundamental rights is an act of calculated evil. We can’t trust the feds to reign in their own power. The states must step in and protect their people.”

Wyoming, Tennessee, South Dakota and South Carolina also have similar bills pending before their legislatures. Sources close to the Tenth Amendment Center indicate as many as a dozen more states could follow suit in the coming weeks.

The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.